After-school skate program provides more than bruises

A small story about what kids are up to now that their after school program has been cancelled for a year. Putting this together was somehow more challenging than many of my multi-day hiking trips through the hinterlands. But it was awesome getting a chance to cover a number of intersecting threads weaving around Phoenix.

Twins Help Scientists Untangle Disease’s Genetic Roots

This was a super quick turn around. Got the assignment, hit up the contacts, drove there, made the photos, filed the photos before dark. I looked at my timestamps and it turns out I was photographing for only 16 minutes. The light got pretty bad rather abruptly as these folks live in a canyon: despite almost an hour more of sunlight, once it dipped behind the canyon walls everything got less than ideal.

I was ready to hear that I ought to head back and make more photos, but the editor was pretty into what I made. Sweet. Nice to get back into the Times in the new year.

Audubon found me on the Diversify Photo list and commissioned me to continue my work in southern Arizona waterways. I was thrilled—I had just been talking to my coop-mates about wanting to work with Audubon in the future—and got even more excited when I realized they wanted me to pair up with a number of experts that would help me get deeper into the nuances of the story.

Fast forward several months and the Winter edition of the magazine is out and it’s fantastic. I spent several weeks putting these images together and I think they’re some of the best work I’ve ever done. Of course, in the time delta from when I made these and when they came out, I’ve tightened up my technique a lot and made some real improvements—but that’s always how it goes, isn’t it?

Airbnb’s IPO Warning: Unhappy Neighbors Are Fighting Back

This one was honestly pretty easy. Bill was easy to set up an appointment with, met him just as dawn was peaking into his neighborhood, made a few clicks, drove around looking for signage, got some beautiful vistas that didn’t make the article, and then headed over to Scottsdale where a shooting had caused a lot of folks to join Bill’s cause. One of the folks living there told me just the day before a lot of windows on the block had been replaced. Dang. But there were still a bunch bullet holes in the facades of homes, and I got permission to get up close and make a few photos of a couple.

Trying to make a reasonably good photo of an elongated cul-de-sac was probably the hardest part of the assignment, and honestly I’m not sure I was all that successful. Oh well. Maybe next time a drone? 

Overall, I’m pretty thrilled how well this article came out; my editor told me the photography was favorably mentioned at the weekly meeting reviewing the proceeding week’s articles, so that’s a lil feather for my cap.

COVID-19 Yet Another Challenge for Grandfamilies

This assignment came to me about an hour before it needed to be filed, luckily I was able to get it scheduled and filed very quickly. The family live only a couple blocks from my house, so it was no sweat. I really loved how these portraits came out, these folks were instantly amiable and gracious hosts. It feels cool to have contributed to the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism 2020 National Fellowship. 

Betty LaDuke reflects on 8 decades of activist art

OPB licensed a number of my photos for use in their ten minute documentary about the artistic efforts of Betty LaDuke. The images were originally produced in early 2018 for the NGO UUSC, which then provided my images royalty-free to the group No More Deaths. A No More Deaths campaign called Faith Floods the Desert drew LaDuke to the region known as the Devil’s Highway, where more than 100 gallons bottles of water were distributed in various nooks around the desert.

Most of what I remember about that day was an intense and overwhelming desire for water. It was a blistering summer day without a cloud in the sky. I was worried for the well-being of the many elder faith leaders that had come to march water into the desert.

Revealed: Trump officials rush to mine desert haven native tribes consider holy

I found out the Guardian was doing a story on the Oak Flat situation (actually this is such a long running issue they first did a story on it before I was even in the business) from a friend. I reached out the the author and asked if they wanted to license some photos I made last year. They asked their editor. Yada yada.

Eventually I hooked up with the photo editor there, who I already kinda knew in the way that everyone knows everyone in this business, but not that well so I wasn’t sure if they’d be annoyed that I inserted myself. They were more or less stoked on a few of my images. I updated all the captioning information just to make sure it as absolutely correct and re-uploaded them to dropbox.  They ended up only licensing one, a pretty good portrait of Wendsler Nosie Sr. But hey, one image out of the back catalog: that’ll pay for some new wool socks!

I’ve actually got a whole photo essay about Nosie and his run to Oak Flat last year, but it’s really specific and I haven’t had success placing it any where. So I’ve just been showing it to editors when they ask to see some of my story-driven work. Caitlin managed to place a similar story with Huff Post last year, by couching it in the more overarching Oak Flat saga. I love her photos of Wendsler and Naelyn. 

With Covid-19 Pandemic Surging, Millions Travel for Thanksgiving

This was a fun one, I believe most photojournalists find this sort of assignment rather tricky. Stop folks going about their lives, ask them some nosy questions on record, then try to make a decent photo of them. It’s got a lot of moving parts, many of which can go wrong. I base my whole approach on how I saw Trip Gabriel do it once while working together for a story in the Times. It’s impromptu, but all while tacking towards a goal. I am such a planner that I am usually a bit nervous, but for me, they usually end up being a blast—even if the portraits aren’t my best.

I knew that getting out to photograph early was key, I’m not sure the assigning editor realized that all the rest stops in Arizona are like, a good bit away from Phoenix. I stopped at a truck stop first just before sunrise, to get visual signifiers of travel. I used some 1-3” exposures to get a sense of the folks zipping down the highway. Even though the sun hadn’t come up yet, the sky was really getting pretty bright and I wished I had had a GND, but I don’t own a set up yet. (SOON!) 

After getting a bunch of those, I got to the rest stop proper just after sun rise and spoke with like a hundred people, only 6 total people were willing to go on record and even those were kinda cagey about it. Oh well. It happens. I still had a great time and the sun rise was gorgeous. 

I tried to make more traffic photos closer to sun down, but they look goofy or boring. A painter I once knew, David Pettibone, told me that there comes a time when every effort you make will make your painting worse, the trick to art is knowing when to stop. Shoulda heeded his advice this day. Anyway there are more photos from this assignment up on my instagram.

Life and Death and Turkeys: A Thanksgiving Tale

I got this assignment on Election Day, which was totally chaotic. I almost forgot I accepted it! Yikes. Good thing I wrote it down in my agenda. I really wanted to get to the farm on butcher day, but the deadline didn’t permit it. I got to the farm at 4 am when Michael typically gets out to feeding the birds. 

Of course, 4 am is well before sunrise, so these photos came out very creepy and kinda anarchic. I like them, but I’m not really sure they fit the vibe of the piece. Chris, the writer liked them though, and the photo director at the New Times didn’t tell me to go fuck myself, so I’m gonna call that a success, even if they didn’t run the bloody foot prints I found (I put them in a collage on my Instagram just for fun).

Meet the Woman Providing Health Care to Migrant Children Near the US-Mexico Border

A last minute assignment the Monday after the elections was a welcome respite from covering the Stop the Steal protests outside of the Maricopa Elections office. A friend of mine happened to be the director of the facility this organization is based out of, so that was pretty fun. They don’t typically allow press inside, but with a promise to refrain from making identifiable photographs of any of their clients and any obvious exterior images, everything was gravy.

Given the pretty awful lighting inside, these were a bit tricky, but I took Cecilia to a park afterward and made some portraits just before golden hour. I wish I could have waited a bit longer but she had to get home to her kids, so I made do. I guess that’s how it is sometimes.